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Seismicity in the “Popcorn State” is 600 times greater than it was prior to 2008

The Center for Biological Diversity today requested that the Bureau of Land Management pull 11 public fossil fuel leases sold last month in Oklahoma and Kansas over concerns that fracking and underground injection of oil wastewater could increase the risk of earthquakes in these areas, threatening the physical safety and homes of tens of thousands of residents.

In today’s letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, the conservation group called on the BLM to withdraw the leases, covering more than 2,300 acres of federal oil and gas reserves in Oklahoma and Kansas, that were auctioned off April 20 in Santa Fe, N.M. Despite scientific evidence of skyrocketing injection-induced earthquakes in Oklahoma in recent years, the group points out, the BLM failed even to mention the problem of increased risk of human caused earthquakes in its Environmental Assessment for the lease auction, which violates the National Environmental Policy Act and could put people and property in harm’s way.

A new video posted on the Center’s website illustrates the recent spike in oil wastewater-induced earthquakes in Oklahoma on a statewide map. Initially, small circles representing seismic activity pop up sporadically, but then rapidly explode all over central and northern Oklahoma with increasing speed and size. A ticker counting the earthquakes also accelerates with time, tallying a total count of 6,116 earthquakes between May 2005 and April 2016.

“It’s clear that these man-made practices are increasing the amount of earthquake activity near and around drilling sites,” said Wendy Park of the Center. “Let’s not wait for an event that damages property or risks lives before acting to protect Oklahoma and Kansas residents. These dangerous seismic risks to communities are yet another reason for keeping dirty federal fossil fuels in the ground.”

Scientists say injections of oil wastewater can lubricate faults, triggering damaging earthquakes. A recent study by the U.S. Geological Survey evaluated the risk of damage from both natural and induced earthquakes in Oklahoma and other states, and the results show a startling rise in seismic activity since the region’s fracking boom began. The agency’s assessment suggests that there is a 5 percent to 10 percent chance of damaging shaking from mainly induced earthquakes in a swath of Oklahoma and Kansas. Read more…

City of Bandar Mahshahr in Iran registered a heat index of 74°C (165.2°F) on Friday. The actual air temperature reached a high of 46.1°C, with a dew point temperature of 32°C at 4.30pm local time. [Ref. B. McNoldy, Uni of Miami]

Meanwhile, the heat index in the Iraqi capital Baghdad reached a high of 52°C on Thursday.

The highest heat index ever recorded was 81.1°C (178°F) in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, reached on July 8, 2003.

Floods, storms and earthquakes forced 32.4 million people to flee their homes

At least 32.4 million people were forced to flee their homes in 2012 by floods, storms and earthquakes, according to a new report released by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC).

8 Mega Disasters, events causing more than one million people to lose their homes, accounted for 68% of all global displacement in 2012. —IDMC

Asia and west and central Africa were the worst affected regions, however, at least 1.3 million were displaced in rich countries, with the USA particularly affected, said the report.

“98% of all displacement in 2012 was related to climate- and weather-related events, with flood disasters in India and Nigeria accounting for 41% of global displacement in 2012. In India, monsoon floods displaced 6.9 million, and in Nigeria 6.1 million people were newly displaced. While over the past five years 81% of global displacement has occurred in Asia, in 2012 Africa had a record high for the region of 8.2 million people newly displaced, over four times more than in any of the previous four years.”

Top ten countries with most displacement in 2012. Source: Global estimates 2012| People displaced by disasters

United States was among the top ten countries with the highest levels of new displacement, with nearly one million people being forced to abandon their homes in 2012.

Displacement in poorer countries accounted for 98% of the global five year total, the report said.

In 2012, an estimated 32.4 million people in 82 countrieswere newly displaced by disasters; 144 million over five years

Top 20 countries with the most displacement over 2008-2012.Source: Global estimates 2012| People displaced by disasters – IDMC

“In countries already facing the effects of conflict and food insecurity such as in Nigeria, Pakistan, and South Sudan, we observe a common theme” says Clare Spurrell, Chief Spokesperson for IDMC. “Here, vulnerability to disaster triggered by floods is frequently further compounded by hunger, poverty and violence; resulting in a ‘perfect storm’ of risk factors that lead to displacement.″

A villager sits in front of his destroyed house after floodwaters receded on July 22, 2012 in Beijing, China. Photo: ChinaFotoPress/ChinaFoto-Press via Getty Images/IDMC report.

The vast majority of this displacement (98 per cent in 2012;83 per cent over five years) was triggered by climate- and weather-related hazards such as floods, storms and wildfires. 2012 had the lowest level of dis-placement due to geophysical disasters for five years; around 680,000 people were displaced by earthquake and volcanic eruption disasters.

DISASTER CALENDAR – May 14, 2013—SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,033 Days Left

Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016.

SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,033 Days Left to ‘Worst Day’ in the brief Human History

Copahue volcano activity could intensify

Authorities in Argentina and Chile have raised the alert at Copahue volcano in Biobio region to the highest level after detecting continued seismic activity on Sunday.

A column of ash and smoke from Copahue volcano rises above the town of Caviahue, a popular ski resort in Neuquen province, Argentina, some 1500 km SW of the capital Buenos Aires. Photo: AFP. Image may be subject to copyright.

Copahue first erupted on Saturday, showering ash on nearby villages and prompting many to evacuate.

“The intensity of seismic signals suggests the eruption in progress is on the smaller side [however] we cannot discount the possibility that the activity could turn into a larger eruption,” said a spokesman for the Chilean Geology and Mining Services.

The 2,970-meter volcano is in SW Argentina’s Neuquen province, near the Chilean border.

About 3,000 people live in the vicinity of the massive volcano, including the residents of Copahue, the town of Caviahue and indigenous Mapuche communities.

The ash plume rose to a height of about 1.5km (5,000ft) above the crater, said Chile’s emergency office (ONEMI).

Canada’s largest earthquake (magnitude 8.1) since 1700, occurred on August 22, 1949 off the coast of BC. It occurred on the Queen Charlotte Fault (Canada’s equivalent of the San Andreas Fault) – the boundary between the Pacific and North American plates that runs underwater along the west coast of the Queen Charlotte Islands off the west coast of British Columbia. The shaking was so severe on the Queen Charlotte Islands that cows were knocked off their feet, and a geologist with the Geological Survey of Canada working on the north end of Graham Island could not stand up. Chimneys toppled, and an oil tank at Cumshewa Inlet collapsed. In Terrace, on the adjacent mainland, cars were bounced around, and standing on the street was described as “like being on the heaving deck of a ship at sea”. In Prince Rupert, windows were shattered and buildings swayed. —Natural resources of Canada

Mt Cleveland. Photo taken at 18:00 UTC on 11 Mar 2012 while transiting north through Samalga pass. Several small explosions were detected in days prior to the time of the photo, but very little ash is observed on the upper flanks. Credit: Matthew Davis/NOAA.

KILAUEA VOLCANO

Activity Summary for past 24 hours:The summit continued to inflate slowly while back-to-back DI events and sympathetic summit lava lake oscillations continued. Overnight, glow was visible within the Halema`uma`u gas plume and from sources within Pu`u `O`o crater. To the southeast, surface flows continued to be active on the pali and the coastal plain; there was no ocean entry. Seismic tremor levels were low; gas emissions were elevated: HVO

Kīlauea Volcano. Active flows continued over a broad area on the coastal plain on April 5, 2012. “This composite image combines a normal photograph and a thermal image to show the areas of active breakouts. Yellow areas are active flows while red areas are inactive, but still warm, flows. The flow front in the lower right was 1.6 km (1 mile) from the ocean,” HVO said.

Alert Level Increased for Iliamna Volcano, AK

Iliamna Activity – Color Code YELLOW Alert Level ADVISORY

Since January 2012 the earthquake rate at Iliamna Volcano has steadily increased and now exceeds normal background levels.

Iliamna Volcano. View from the SSE of Iliamna showing the prominent NE shoulder fumarole field near the summit. Note glacier disturbance (movement) on the east flank (upper Red Glacier). Photo: Game McGimsey/AVO/USGS.

We won’t ask, what new data? However, note the researchers’ inappropriate use of the term “mirror image,” which they almost certainly borrowed from earlier FIRE-EARTH forecast [https://feww.wordpress.com/2009/08/19/new-round-of-geo-assualt/] but used it in the wrong context. Their slick prophecy about the time of occurrence, “it could be sooner rather than later,” is also mysteriously consistent with the above FIRE-EARTH forecast(i.e, short term). Though the researchers fail to say how they arrived at their conclusion or where it came from.

Quake catastrophe like Japan’s could hit Pacific Northwest, new data show

“It’s just like Japan, only a mirror image,” said Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist at the University of Hawaii and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

“Where are we here? Are we close or are we not close?” he asked. “I think the suspicion is that it could be sooner rather than later.” [Based on what assumptions?]
[…]
Like Fryer, he called the Pacific Northwest trench a “mirror image” of the Japanese trench — except potentially even more dangerous.

“In this mirror image, one can see that if the same earthquake occurred in Cascadia, the fault would rupture to a significant distance inland, since the Cascadia trench sits much closer to the coastline than the trench off the coast of Japan,” Anderson said.

NOTHING SACRED in SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY

Readers who are in doubt about the originality of the research at Hawaii and Nevada universities, could put their minds at rest of course by emailing the two academics named in the MSNBC article and asking them for details of those events (e.g, type, sequence, scale, probability of occurrence…).

JAPAN Region Earthquake Forecast

In Japan Earthquake Forecast, posted on February 14, 2012, we said:

A Note to Seismologists at Tokyo University and Tohoku University, Japan

FIRE-EARTH MODERATORS STRONGLY URGE YOU TO PRODUCE ORIGINAL RESEARCH AND REFRAIN FROM PIGGYBACK RIDING ON OUR FORECASTS.

ONCE AGAIN, YOU HAVE MADE US EXTREMELY RELUCTANT TO POST ANY FUTURE EARTHQUAKE FORECAST.

Staff at Research Center for Prediction of Earthquakes & Volcanic Eruptions, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University are strongly advised to focus on probability of the next major earthquake in China.

How could researchers from 4 different universities located on the opposite ends of Pacific Ocean, about 9,000km (5,500 miles) apart bluff their way in identical ways, fooling their respective taxpayers into believing they know their science? Is there a common link between Japan earthquake researchers, and their counterparts in Western U.S.?

Serial No 1,528. If any posts are blocked in your country, please drop us a line.

Correction:

An earlier report of a magnitude 8.0 earthquake in the Dominican Republic that was posted on Fire-Earth was sourced from an automatically generated bulletin broadcast by the European Commission’s Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System – the report now appears to be FALSE

According to other monitoring sources, an 8.0Mw quake has NOT occurred in the region.

Earthquakes caused the deadliest disasters in 2000-09 decade: UNISDR

In its recent News Brief, United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction Secretariat (UNISDR) reported that about 60 per cent of the people killed by disasters in the past decade died as a result of earthquakes.

List of Top 10 Natural disasters by number of deaths – 2009. Source: UNISDR. Click image to enlarge.

“Earthquakes are the deadliest natural hazard of the past ten years and remain a serious threat for millions of people worldwide as eight out of the ten most populous cities in the world are on earthquake fault-lines,” said Margareta Wahlström, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction.

“Disaster risk reduction is an indispensable investment for each earthquake-prone city and each community. Seismic risk is a permanent risk and cannot be ignored. Earthquakes can happen anywhere at any time. Risk reduction will be a main priority in the Haiti reconstruction process, and we will be working with our partners to ensure that it is central in the reconstruction.”

The Center for Research on Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) has released the following statistics covering the past 10 years:

Number of disasters for 2000-20009 period: 3,852 disasters

Death toll from the disasters: 780,000 people

Total number of people affected by the disasters: about a thirs of the planet’s population (more than two billion people)

Cost of the damage caused by the disasters: About 1 trillion (US$960 billion).

The worst hit continent in terms of human losses: Asia, accounting for 85 per cent of all fatalities.

Disaster Types

The worst category: Earthquakes, accounting for 60 percent of the fatalities

Second Worst Disaster Category: Storms, accounting for 22 percent of the deaths.

Third deadliest: Extremes of Temperature, accounting for 11 percent of the casualties.

“The number of catastrophic events has more than doubled since the 1980-1989 decade. In contrast, the numbers of affected people have increased at a slower rate. This may be due to better community preparedness and prevention,” said Professor Guha-Sapir, Director of CRED.

Of the more than two billion affected people

44 per cent were affected by floods

30 per cent by droughts

ONLY 4 per cent by earthquakes

The death toll for the last 3 decades (annual average)

2000 decade: 78,000 people per year(ppy)

1990s decade: 43,000 ppy

1980s decade: 75,000 (worsened by two major droughts and famines in Ethiopia and Sudan)

Natural Hazard Events (annual average) and Estimated Economic Damage

2000 decade: 385 at a cost of US$96 billion

1990 decade: 285 at a cost of US$99 billion

1980 decade: 165 at a cost of US$39 billion

Percentage of people killed by natural disasters by region. Source: UNISDR. Click image to enlarge.

In 2009, some 10,416 people were killed in 327 disasters and a further 113 million others were affected. Cost of the economic damage: US$34.9 billion. {there were no major disasters). the total number of people killed and affected by disasters was lower than in 2008, as no major disaster occurred.

The worst disaster in 2009 (highest death toll) was the 7.6 magnitude earthquake that struck the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, on 30 September, killing at least 1,100 people. It was followed by typhoons Morakot, Ketsana and Parma and numerous floods that killed many in Asia, which was home to six of the top 10 countries with the highest number of disaster-related deaths.

Note: IF the numbers of fatalities/casualties in a given disaster are claimed to be larger than a few hundreds, and no video or photographic evidence is presented to support the claim, those figures should be carefully analyzed. Governments and aid organizations invariably exaggerate the casualty figures to maximize the inflow of aid and donations for self-serving purposes and interests other than those of the victims. See footnote at https://feww.wordpress.com/earthquake/haiti-earthquake-disaster/

The next cataclysmic event at Yellowstone supervolcano could cover about 60 percent of the continental US in volcanic materials —Fire Earth

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Yellowstone’s Plumbing Exposed

Plume Slants NW; Magma Body Bigger than Thought

Dec. 14, 2009 – The most detailed seismic images yet published of the plumbing that feeds the Yellowstone supervolcano shows a plume of hot and molten rock rising at an angle from the northwest at a depth of at least 410 miles, contradicting claims that there is no deep plume, only shallow hot rock moving like slowly boiling soup.

A related University of Utah study used gravity measurements to indicate the banana-shaped magma chamber of hot and molten rock a few miles beneath Yellowstone is 20 percent larger than previously believed, so a future cataclysmic eruption could be even larger than thought.

Seismic imaging was used by University of Utah scientists to construct this picture of the Yellowstone hotspot plume of hot and molten rock that feeds the shallower magma chamber (not shown) beneath Yellowstone National Park, outlined in green at the surface, or top of the illustration. The Yellowstone caldera, or giant volcanic crater, is outlined in red. State boundaries are shown in black. The park, caldera and state boundaries also are projected to the bottom of the picture to better illustrate the plume’s tilt. Researchers believe “blobs” of hot rock float off the top of the plume, then rise to recharge the magma chamber located 3.7 miles to 10 miles beneath the surface at Yellowstone. The illustration also shows a region of warm rock extending southwest from near the top of the plume. It represents the eastern Snake River Plain, where the Yellowstone hotspot triggered numerous cataclysmic caldera eruptions before the plume started feeding Yellowstone 2.05 million years ago. Photo Credit: University of Utah

The study’s of Yellowstone’s plume also suggests the same “hotspot” that feeds Yellowstone volcanism also triggered the Columbia River “flood basalts” that buried parts of Oregon, Washington state and Idaho with lava starting 17 million years ago.

Those are key findings in four National Science Foundation-funded studies in the latest issue of the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research. The studies were led by Robert B. Smith, research professor and professor emeritus of geophysics at the University of Utah and coordinating scientist for the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.

“We have a clear image, using seismic waves from earthquakes, showing a mantle plume that extends from beneath Yellowstone,” Smith says.

The plume angles downward 150 miles to the west-northwest of Yellowstone and reaches a depth of at least 410 miles, Smith says. The study estimates the plume is mostly hot rock, with 1 percent to 2 percent molten rock in sponge-like voids within the hot rock.

Some researchers have doubted the existence of a mantle plume feeding Yellowstone, arguing instead that the area’s volcanic and hydrothermal features are fed by convection – the boiling-like rising of hot rock and sinking of cooler rock – from relatively shallow depths of only 185 miles to 250 miles.

A cross section of the plume of hot and molten rock that tops out about 50 miles beneath Yellowstone National Park and tilts downward to the northwest to a depth of at least 410 miles. The plume is mostly hot rock with about 1 to 2 percent molten rock. Researches believe “blobs” of hot rock slowly detach from the top of the plume and rise upward to recharge the magma chamber that lies from 3.7 to 10 miles beneath Yellowstone. The chamber is also mostly hot rock, but with a sponge-like structure containing about 8 to 15 percent molten rock.Photo Credit: University of Utah

The Hotspot: A Deep Plume, Blobs and Shallow Magma

Some 17 million years ago, the Yellowstone hotspot was located beneath the Oregon-Idaho-Nevada border region, feeding a plume of hot and molten rock that produced “caldera” eruptions – the biggest kind of volcanic eruption on Earth.

As North America slid southwest over the hotspot, the plume generated more than 140 huge eruptions that produced a chain of giant craters – calderas – extending from the Oregon-Idaho-Nevada border northeast to the current site of Yellowstone National Park, where huge caldera eruptions happened 2.05 million, 1.3 million and 642,000 years ago.

These eruptions were 2,500, 280 and 1,000 times bigger, respectively, than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. The eruptions covered as much as half the continental United States with inches to feet of volcanic ash. The Yellowstone caldera, 40 miles by 25 miles, is the remnant of that last giant eruption.

The new study reinforces the view that the hot and partly molten rock feeding volcanic and geothermal activity at Yellowstone isn’t vertical, but has three components:

The 45-mile-wide plume that rises through Earth’s upper mantle from at least 410 miles beneath the surface. The plume angles upward to the east-southeast until it reaches the colder rock of the North American crustal plate, and flattens out like a 300-mile-wide pancake about 50 miles beneath Yellowstone. The plume includes several wider “blobs” at depths of 355 miles, 310 miles and 265 miles.”This conduit is not one tube of constant thickness,” says Smith. “It varies in width at various depths, and we call those things blobs.”

A little-understood zone, between 50 miles and 10 miles deep, in which blobs of hot and partly molten rock break off of the flattened top of the plume and slowly rise to feed the magma reservoir directly beneath Yellowstone National Park.

A magma reservoir 3.7 miles to 10 miles beneath the Yellowstone caldera. The reservoir is mostly sponge-like hot rock with spaces filled with molten rock”It looks like it’s up to 8 percent or 15 percent melt,” says Smith. “That’s a lot.”

Researchers previously believed the magma chamber measured roughly 6 to 15 miles from southeast to northwest, and 20 or 25 miles from southwest to northeast, but new measurements indicate the reservoir extends at least another 13 miles outside the caldera’s northeast boundary, Smith says.

He says the gravity and other data show the magma body “is an elongated structure that looks like a banana with the ends up. It is a lot larger than we thought – I would say about 20 percent [by volume]. This would argue there might be a larger magma source available for a future eruption.”

Images of the magma reservoir were made based on the strength of Earth’s gravity at various points in Yellowstone. Hot and molten rock is less dense than cold rock, so the tug of gravity is measurably lower above magma reservoirs.

The Yellowstone caldera, like other calderas on Earth, huffs upward and puffs downward repeatedly over the ages, usually without erupting. Since 2004, the caldera floor has risen 3 inches per year, suggesting recharge of the magma body beneath it.

How to View a Plume

Seismic imaging uses earthquake waves that travel through the Earth and are recorded by seismometers. Waves travel more slowly through hotter rock and more quickly in cooler rock. Just as X-rays are combined to make CT-scan images of features in the human body, seismic wave data are melded to produce images of Earth’s interior.

The study, the Yellowstone Geodynamics Project, was conducted during 1999-2005. It used an average of 160 temporary and permanent seismic stations – and as many as 200 – to detect waves from some 800 earthquakes, with the stations spaced 10 miles to 22 miles apart – closer than other networks and better able to “see” underground. Some 160 Global Positioning System stations measured crustal movements.

By integrating seismic and GPS data, “it’s like a lens that made the upper 125 miles much clearer and allowed us to see deeper, down to 410 miles,” Smith says.

The study also shows warm rock – not as hot as the plume – stretching from Yellowstone southwest under the Snake River Plain, at depths of 20 miles to 60 miles. The rock is still warm from eruptions before the hotspot reached Yellowstone.

A Plume Blowing in the 2-inch-per-year Mantle Wind

Seismic imaging shows a “slow” zone from the top of the plume, which is 50 miles deep, straight down to about 155 miles, but then as you travel down the plume, it tilts to the northwest as it dives to a depth of 410 miles, says Smith.

That is the base of the global transition zone – from 250 miles to 410 miles deep – that is the boundary between the upper and lower mantle – the layers below Earth’s crust.

At that depth, the plume is about 410 miles beneath the town of Wisdom, Mont., which is 150 miles west-northwest of Yellowstone, says Smith.

He says “it wouldn’t surprise me” if the plume extends even deeper, perhaps originating from the core-mantle boundary some 1,800 miles deep.

Why doesn’t the plume rise straight upward? “This plume material wants to come up vertically, it wants to buoyantly rise,” says Smith. “But it gets caught in the ‘wind’ of the upper mantle flow, like smoke rising in a breeze.” Except in this case, the “breeze” of slowly flowing upper mantle rock is moving horizontally 2 inches per year.

While the crustal plate moves southwest, the warm, underlying mantle slowly boils due to convection, with warm areas moving upward and cooler areas downward. Northwest of Yellowstone, this convection is such that the plume is “blown” east-southeast by mantle convection, so it angles upward toward Yellowstone.

Scientists have debated for years whether Yellowstone’s volcanism is fed by a plume rising from deep in the Earth or by shallow churning in the upper mantle caused by movements of the overlying crust. Smith says the new study has produced the most detailed image of the Yellowstone plume yet published.

But a preliminary study by other researchers suggests Yellowstone’s plume goes deeper than 410 miles, ballooning below that depth into a wider zone of hot rock that extends at least 620 miles deep.

The notion that a deep plume feeds Yellowstone got more support from a study published this month inicating that the Hawaiian hotspot – which created the Hawaiian Islands – is fed by a plume that extends downward at least 930 miles, tilting southeast.

A Common Source for Yellowstone and the Columbia River Basalts?

Based on how the Yellowstone plume slants now, Smith and colleagues projected on a map where the plume might have originated at depth when the hotspot was erupting at the Oregon-Idaho-Nevada border area from 17 million to almost 12 million years ago.

They saw overlap, between the zones within the Earth where eruptions originated near the Oregon-Idaho-Nevada border and where the famed Columbia River Basalt eruptions originated when they were most vigorous 17 million to 14 million years ago.

Their conclusion: the Yellowstone hotspot plume might have fed those gigantic lava eruptions, which covered much of eastern Oregon and eastern Washington state.

“I argue it is the common source,” Smith says. “It’s neat stuff and it fits together.”

Smith conducted the seismic study with six University of Utah present or former geophysicists – former postdoctoral researchers Michael Jordan, of SINTEF Petroleum Research in Norway, and Stephan Husen, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology; postdoc Christine Puskas; Ph.D. student Jamie Farrell; and former Ph.D. students Gregory Waite, now at Michigan Technological University, and Wu-Lung Chang, of National Central University in Taiwan. Other co-authors were Bernhard Steinberger of the Geological Survey of Norway and Richard O’Connell of Harvard University.

Smith conducted the gravity study with former University of Utah graduate student Katrina DeNosaquo and Tony Lowry of Utah State University in Logan.

Tsunami Evaluation:

NO DESTRUCTIVE WIDESPREAD TSUNAMI THREAT EXISTS BASED ON HISTORICAL EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI DATA.

HOWEVER – EARTHQUAKES OF THIS SIZE SOMETIMES GENERATE LOCAL TSUNAMIS THAT CAN BE DESTRUCTIVE ALONG COASTS LOCATED WITHIN A HUNDRED KM OF THE EARTHQUAKE EPICENTER. AUTHORITIES IN THE REGION OF THE EPICENTER SHOULD BE AWARE OF THIS POSSIBILITY AND TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTION.

FEWW Comment: Does the SW Pacific region including Tonga, Fiji, and Samoan Islands regions act as a ‘planetary seismic shock damper?’ How much longer will the service last?

Earthquake Measuring up to 6.8 Mw followed by a Strong Aftershock Strikes Queen Charlotte Islands Region

A powerful earthquake measuring up to magnitude 6.8 followed by a cluster of aftershocks, the largest of which measured up to M 6.0, struck Queen Charlotte Islands Region on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at about 15:31 UTC, at a shallow depth of about 5 km.

Tsunami Information

The West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer AK, said there was no threat of a damaging tsunami caused by the earthquake. However some neighboring regions could experience non-damaging sea level changes. “In coastal areas of intense shaking locally generated tsunamis can be triggered by underwater landslides.”

Canada’s largest earthquake (magnitude 8.1) since 1700, occurred on August 22, 1949 off the coast of BC. It occurred on the Queen Charlotte Fault (Canada’s equivalent of the San Andreas Fault) – the boundary between the Pacific and North American plates that runs underwater along the west coast of the Queen Charlotte Islands off the west coast of British Columbia. The shaking was so severe on the Queen Charlotte Islands that cows were knocked off their feet, and a geologist with the Geological Survey of Canada working on the north end of Graham Island could not stand up. Chimneys toppled, and an oil tank at Cumshewa Inlet collapsed. In Terrace, on the adjacent mainland, cars were bounced around, and standing on the street was described as “like being on the heaving deck of a ship at sea”. In Prince Rupert, windows were shattered and buildings swayed.—Natural resources of Canada

Quake measuring 5 on Richter scale rocked Western Yunnan, destroying about 600 houses and damaging up to 18,000 others

The earthquake occurred in western Yunnan about 85 km (55 miles) NE of Dali at a depth of 35 km (21.7 miles) early Monday local time.

The tremor has affected 302,000 people, with 31 injured and 61,000 relocated, but no deaths were reported so far, China’s official news agency Xinhua said. “The quake flattened 579 houses and damaged another 17,400.”

China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs has sent tents, war clothing, and rice to the victims, Xinhua added.

According to other reports, about 400 livestock, including pigs, sheep and chicken had been killed in the quake.

Large earthquake measuring up to 8.2 Mw struck Vanuatu region, south of Lata, Santa Cruz Islands, on Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 22:03 UTC immediately followed by another shock measuring up to 8.1 Mw, and at least seven aftershocks, with the largest two measuring up to 7.6 Mw and 6.3 Mw respectively.

FEWW Moderators believe many more massive aftershocks could occur in the region.

Tsunami Warning

NOAA/NWS/West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center said “a tsunami IS NOT expected along the California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, or Alaska coast. NO tsunami warning, watch or advisory is in effect for these areas.”

NWS PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER EWA BEACH HI had issued a tsunami watch which was later canceled with the following evaluation:

BASED ON ALL AVAILABLE DATA THERE IS NO DESTRUCTIVE TSUNAMI THREAT TO THE STATE OF HAWAII. THEREFORE THE TSUNAMI WATCH FOR HAWAII IS CANCELED.

HOWEVER, SOME COASTAL AREAS IN HAWAII COULD EXPERIENCE SMALL NON-DESTRUCTIVE SEA LEVEL CHANGES AND STRONG OR UNUSUAL CURRENTS LASTING UP TO SEVERAL HOURS. THE ESTIMATED TIME SUCH EFFECTS MIGHT BEGIN IS0650 PM HST WED 07 OCT 2009

THIS WILL BE THE FINAL MESSAGE ISSUED FOR THIS EVENT UNLESS ADDITIONAL DATA ARE RECEIVED.

Strong Earthquake Measuring up to 6.4Mw Strikes East Coast of Taiwan

Strong earthquake measuring up to 6.4 Mw struck off the east coast of Taiwan at a depth of 17.5 km on Saturday, October 03, 2009 at 17:36 UTC.

As the quake occurred, Typhoon Parma was reported heading towards the southeastern coast of Taiwan still reeling from the aftermath of typhoon Morakot that struck the island in August, killing more than 1000 people.

As of Saturday, October 3, virtually no help has reached rural areas.

Up to 4,000 people (figure provided by UN officials) are feared trapped under hundreds of thousands of tons of rubble after a magnitude 7.9 quake destroyed more than 25,000 houses and buildings across seven districts on a 100-km stretch along the western coast of Sumatra island, Indonesia on September 30, 2009.

“We estimate there are still eight people trapped alive under Ambacang Hotel. We are still trying hard to evacuate them,” a rescuer told reporters, in Padang.

Indonesians look at bodies from under a cloth barrier after they were pulled from the rubble of buildings, at a hospital in the Sumatran Island city of Pedang, Indonesia, Friday, Oct. 2, 2009. Medical teams, search dogs, backhoes and emergency supplies were flown into the devastated western coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra island Friday to bolster frantic rescue attempts for thousands buried by a powerful earthquake. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer). Image may be subject to copyright.

An Indonesian man climbs down from a house that collapsed on top of a car in Wednesday’s earthquake ,in Padang, Indonesia, Friday, Oct. 2, 2009. Medical teams, search dogs, backhoes and emergency supplies were flown into the devastated western coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra island Friday to bolster frantic rescue attempts for thousands buried by a powerful earthquake. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer). Image may be subject to copyright.

Situation in the Disaster Areas:

Power outages are reported in most districts, phone lines are down.

Water and food are in very short supply.

Villagers are digging out the dead with bare hands.

Cost of recovery operation is estimated at least $400 million, according to Indonesia’s Vice President.

Rural areas are cut off by massive landslides, which have reportedly blocked roads and destroyed a number of villages, killing about 300 people.

There are no structures standing in the district of Pariaman, a hilly community of about 370,000 about 80 km north of Padang, an AP journalist has reported.

Sumatra Double Earthquakes

FEWW Moderators believe it’s highly probable that another 2 or more strong to powerful quakes could strike the region in the coming days. Padang and other coastal towns in Sumatra and Java must also prepare for a possible tsunami.

At least 1,200 bodies have been recovered following widespread damage after a magnitude 7.9 quake struck southern Sumatra, Indonesia, on Wednesday, according to the officials.

The Death Toll Could Reach Many Thousands

There are no reports of deaths from the 6.8 magnitude quake that struck southern Sumatra on Thursday. However. a local radio station reported that a dozen 12 people had been injured and up to 75 building damaged in the town of Jambi.

“People are trapped and screaming for help but they are below huge slabs which will take heavy equipment to move,” an aid worker said.

“I saw dozens of the biggest buildings collapsed in town. Most of the damage is concentrated in the commercial center market, which was fully packed,” he said.

Images that will be repeated throughout the world, again, and again

Residents stand near the bodies of earthquake victims at a hospital in Padang on Indonesia’s Sumatra
island October 1, 2009. REUTERS/Muhammad Fitrah/Singgalang Newspaper

Regional Economy

West Sumatra, a major producer of crude palm oil, is also affected economically.

Indonesia’s finance minister Sri Mulyani said: “This region has been damaged seriously, including its infrastructure,” adding that her government has allocated $25 million over two month for emergency operations.